Had to take a photo of this……

I was passing a Chinese medicine shop in Hamden Street today and saw this. I was quite amazed it was on show in the front window! Made me laugh anyway…… :-)

…… no I didn’t buy one.

Killers last night

No, there hasn’t been another murder at the apartment block! But there was a rock band from Vegas in town. They were playing at The Emirates Palace outdoors, which this time of year is lovely. we left it late to get tickets so we had to pay extra and get the “up front” tickets as that was all they had. It is much better and meant that we could just pitch up as things kicked off and still had a good view.

I think most of the audience must have travelled from Dubai, because I’ve no idea where all the young, white westerners came from! You never see that many around Abu Dhabi.

I was going to post some video clips (at the risk of getting a nasty email from some massive American media conglomerate) but Blogger upload system doesn't seem to be working.

Camel Farm

We have had Caroline’s mum and Jamie, our nephew, staying with us this week. They wanted to see the desert, so we drove towards Al Ain and stopped near one of the camel farms. Near the camel farms there were some huge stretches of field laid out with straw bales – no idea what they were for.

We stopped off at a park in Baniyas on the way back for Jamie to let off some more steam. It was quite quiet with just a few families having picnics. I think they were a bit surprised to see expats in this park, as Baniyas is really very much a “local” district.

Click to see pictures bigger…

                  

          

                 

             

                

38th National Day

The locals celebrated their 38th National Day (commemorating the unification of 7 Emirates into 1 independent nation of Emirates) in their usual inimitable fashion! Emiratis love their country and their leaders and they love to celebrate, so on National Day all these things come together. The Corniche in Abu Dhabi become an unofficial DIY parade, with people who have spent 1000s of Dirhams decorating their cars driving up and down the street. There is a real party atmosphere which everyone joins in with.
This year there was much made about a massive firework display that would be set off from 25 points around the city and from barges on the waterfront. They started an hour late (at 9.30pm) by which time many people, especially those with young children had already gone, or started going home. When eventually they came, they were the biggest let down ever! Most towns back home would have better displays on Nov 5th. I don’t know what happened – maybe it’s the credit crisis!

Madness on the Saadiyat highway

I was travelling from Khalifa City home using the Saadiyat highway this afternoon. This motorway has 5 lanes each way and there was literally only the odd few cars around. Then I saw the flashing lights. A car (looked like a Lumina SS – same as a Vectra VXR or Holden Commodore SS) was smashed up facing the wrong way in the central reservation. Go figure.

The highway travels across Yas Island, Saadiyat Island and in-between goes across some mangrove swamps. It turns out that some people (you know who I mean!) have complained that you cannot enjoy the sight of the mangroves because the safety barrier is too high and blocks the view. As I was driving over today there were teams of workers cutting through the middle of the concrete barrier to make it about half the height is was. I suspect that the height of the barrier is designed to stop cars crashing over the top and ending up in the said mangrove swamp. So now they can drive at 200kmph (there are also no cameras on this highway) taking in all the beautiful views as they crash into the wall and plunge into the lovely aqua blue water below. I’m thinking of opening a book on how long it will take – but then that would be illegal…..